Everything
You Need To Know About Loose Skin And Weight Loss
By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
I receive
a lot of e-mail from people with loose skin or from overweight people
who are concerned about having loose skin after they lose the weight.
In fact, this is one of the biggest concerns and most frequently asked
questions I receive from men and women who have a lot of weight to lose.
Just
recently, I received this email from a reader of my syndicated "Ask
Tom" fat loss column:
"Tom,
I began a fat loss program using your Burn The Fat system and it worked
so well I got down to 15 1/2 stones (from 19). However, this has caused
me a problem: Excess abdominal skin. I didn't crash lose this weight,
it came off at the rate of about 2 lbs. per week just like you recommended.
Now I'm unsure of whether to carry on, as my abdomen has quite a lot
of excess skin - I feel like I've turned into a bloody Shar-Pei! Does
everyone go through this? Will the skin tighten up? I was overweight
for more than 12 years. Am I going to end up needing surgical skin removal?
Can you offer me any advice? I'm a medical student in the UK and my
colleagues seem determined to proffer surgery as the only option."
There
are 14 things you should know about loose skin after very large weight
losses:
1.
Skin is incredibly elastic. Your skin can stretch and expand or tighten
and retract to a great degree. Look at what women go through during
pregnancy. Some women do experience stretch marks after pregnancy, but
obviously skin is remarkably elastic.
2.
Elasticity of skin depends on both genetics and environment/lifestyle.
Wrinkling and loss of elasticity is partly the consequence of aging
(genetic factors) and also a result of environmental factors such as
oxidative stress, excessive sun exposure, and nutritional deficiency.
The environmental parts you can fix, the genetics and age part, you
cannot. Advice: Get moving and change the things you have control over...
Be realistic and don't worry about those things you don't have control
over.
3.
How much your skin returns to its former tautness depends partly on
age. The older you get, the more an extremely large weight loss can
leave loose skin that will not return to normal.
4.
How long you carry extra weight may influence how much the skin will
become taut after the weight loss: For example, compare a 9 month pregnancy
with 9 years carrying 100 excess pounds.
5.
How much weight was carried has a lot to do with how much the skin will
resume a tight appearance. Your skin can only be stretched so much and
be expected to "snap back" one hundred percent. With extreme
obesity, the probability of there still being loose skin after weight
loss is higher.
6.
How fast the weight was gained also has a lot to do with how much the
skin will resume a tight appearance. Your skin can only be stretched
so quickly and be expected to "snap back."
7.
How fast weight is lost also has a lot to do with how much the skin
will tighten up. Rapid weight loss doesn't allow the skin time to slowly
resume to normal. (This is yet another reason to lose fat slowly; 1-2
pounds per week, 3 pounds at the most if you have a lot of weight to
lose, and even then, only if you are measuring body fat and you're certain
it's fat you're losing, not lean tissue).
8.
There are exceptions to all of the above; For example, people who gained
and then lost incredible amounts of weight quickly at age 50 or 60,
and their skin returned 100% to normal.
9.
Creams probably don't work. There are many creams advertised as having
the ability to restore the tightness of your skin. the late bodybuilding
guru Dan duchaine used to recommend topical creams made with pycnogenol,
which contain the antioxidant bioflavanoids called proanthocyanidins.
But to the best of my knowledge, none of the topical creams are scientifically
validated. I haven't even heard much anecdotal evidence that they work
-- at least not permanently and measurably -- and especially if you
have a lot of loose skin. There are definitely some topicals that will
pull water from under your skin, but remeber, that is temporary. Buyer
should beware with topical products. (as an aside, Ive also heard anectodal
reports that skin brushing was helpful, but again, I am not aware of
any scientific evidence proving this is effective).
10.
Nutrition has a lot to do with the health of your skin. Essential fatty
acids in particular are very valuable for many reasons, and one of them
is for the health of your skin. It would be worth taking an EFA supplement
such as fish oil, flax oil or an oil blend like Udo's choice. Antioxidants
are also very important, so be sure to consume copious amounts of a
variety of vegetables and fruits. Also pay very close attention to hydration.
Drink approximately a gallon of water a day or a minimum of half your
body weight in ounces. (By the way, whey protein is high in a powerful
antioxidant called glutathione).
11.
Exercise has a lot to do with how your skin appears after you lose body
fat. If you use very low calorie diets, you are likely to lose lean
body mass, and this is going to exacerbate the loose, hanging skin appearance.
On the other hand, if you are exercising regularly and increasing lean
body mass with weight training, you will be more likely to minimize
the appearance of loose skin.
12.
Get second opinions if you are considering surgery.If you're considering
surgical skin removal, consult a physician for advice because this is
not a minor operation, but keep in mind that your plastic surgeon may
be making his BMW payments with your abdominoplasty money. (Surgery
might be recommended in situations where it's not 100% necessary). Surgery
should be left as the absolute final option in extreme cases.
13.
Give your skin time. Your skin will definitely get tighter as your body
fat gets lower. I've seen and heard of many cases where the skin gradually
tightened up, at least partially, after a one or two year period where
the weight loss was maintained and exercise continued.
14.
Know your body fat percentage before even thinking about surgery. Loose
skin is one thing, but still having a lot of body fat is another. Be
honest with yourself and do that by taking your body fat measurement.
This can be done with skinfold calipers or a variety of other devices
(calipers might not be the best method if you have large folds of loose
skin. Look into impedance analysis, underwater weighing, DEXA or Bod
Pod).
Suppose
for example, a man drops from 35% body fat all the way down to 20%.
He should be congratulated, but I would tell him, "Don't complain
about loose skin yet, your body fat is still high. Press onward and
keep getting leaner and be sure to focus on strength training to increase
lean body mass as well."
Average
body fat for men is in the mid teens (16% or so). Average body fat for
women is in the 20-25% range. Good body fat for men is 10-12%, and single
digits is extremely lean. Men shouldn't expect to look "ripped"
with 100% tight skin on the abs unless they have single digit body fat.
Women shouldn't expect to have tight abdominal skin unless they are
in the low to mid teens in body fat.
Except
in extreme cases, you are actually unlikely to see someone with loose
skin who has very low body fat and especially someone who has not just
"lost weight" but has altered body composition by adding lean
muscle as well. It's quite remarkable how much your skin can tighten
up once your body fat goes from "average" to "excellent"
and even more so when lean body mass increase. Someone with legitimate
single digit body fat and a ton of loose skin is a rare sight.
So
the key to getting tighter skin is to improve your body composition
(muscle to fat ratio), and lose more body fat, slowly and sensibly,
up to the point where your body composition rating is BETTER than average
(in the "good" to "great" category, not just "okay").
Only AFTER you reach your long term body fat percentage goal should
you give thought to "excess skin removal." At that point,
admittedly, there are bound to be a few isolated cases where surgery
is necessary if you can't live with the amount of loose skin remaining.
However,
unless you are really, really lean, it's difficult to get a clear picture
of what is loose skin, what is just remaining body fat and how much
further the skin will tighten up when the rest of the fat is lost.
Need
help getting rid of that last bit of body body fat? Click here to find
out how to do it the natural way: Burn
the Fat, Feed The Muscle
About
the Author:
 |
Tom Venuto
is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified personal
trainer (CPT), certified strength & conditioning specialist
(CSCS), and author of the #1 best-selling e-book, "Burn
the Fat, Feed The Muscle.” Tom has written hundreds of
articles and has been featured in print magazines such as IRONMAN,
Australian IRONMAN, Natural Bodybuilding, Muscular Development,
Exercise for Men and Men’s Exercise, as well as on hundreds
of websites worldwide. For information on Tom's Fat Loss program,
click
here.
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